The cultural context of biodiversity conservation
Subtitle: seen and unseen dimensions of indigenous knowledge among Q'eqchi' communities in Guatemala
By: Petra Maass
Edition: North American ed.
Series: Göttinger Beiträge zur Ethnologie -- v. 2
Publisher: University of Akron Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Akron, Ohio]
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource] :
Number of pages: 283
ISBN-13: 9781935603344; 9781931968805
Subjects: Landscape assessment; Ethnology; Protected areas; Human ecology; Kekchi Indians; Science; Traditional ecological knowledge; Biodiversity conservation; Social aspects
Other titles: Project Muse UPCC books.
Description: How are biological diversity, protected areas, indigenous knowledge and religious worldviews related? From an anthropological perspective, this book provides an introduction into the complex subject of conservation policies that cannot be addressed without recognising the encompassing relationship between discursive, political, economic, social and ecological facets. By facing these interdependencies across global, national and local dynamics, it draws on an ethnographic case study among Maya-Q'eqchi' communities living in the margins of protected areas in Guatemala. In documenting the cultural aspects of landscape, the study explores the coherence of diverse expressions of indigenous knowledge. It intends to remind of cultural values and beliefs closely tied to subsistence activities and ritual practices that define local perceptions of the natural environment. The basic idea is to illustrate that there are different ways of knowing and reasoning, seeing and endowing the world with meaning, which include visible material and invisible interpretative understandings. These tend to be underestimated issues in international debates and may provide an alternative approach upon which conservation initiatives responsive to the needs of the humans involved should be based on.
Notes: Issued as part of UPCC book collections on Project MUSE.

Previously published: Göttingen : Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2008.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 258-280).

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Description based on print version record. Description based on print version record.

Description based on print version record.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: The global context; title: The discursive context; title: The local context; title: Local expressions of indigenous knowledge; title: Concluding remarks; title: Epilogue; title: References; title: Appendix.